US coal shipment volumes have increased four consecutive weeks to a year-high mark, the Association of American Railroads reported Wednesday.
For the week ending June 25, the AAR reported 77,514 coal carloads traveled US railways, up 11.6% from the previous week but down 14.3% from the year-ago week.
The latest count tops the previous year-high level of 77,416 carloads in the last week of January.
Weekly coal shipment volumes have averaged 69,448 carloads in the first 25 weeks of this year compared with 101,102 carloads in the year-ago period.
US coal carload volumes are down 31.3% year to date, or about 791,000 carloads.
Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- originated 7,852 coal carloads, up 23.3% from the previous week and down 1.7% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal carload volumes are down 13.9% year to date, or about 29,000 carloads.
